Friday Newsletter — 12/16/11

The Atlanta Falcons played nearly flawless football in a 41-14 drubbing of the Jacksonville Jaguars Thursday night. As we projected, Falcons WR Roddy White (10-135-2) was going to dominate the game (we had White as the #1 rated WR for Week 15) and that’s exactly what he did. Rookie WRJulio Jones wasn’t bad either, catching five passes for 85 yards and a TD. What’s even more amazing is the fact that White was targeted 16 times in less than 3 quarters. White is also the 8th player in NFL history to post five consecutive seasons of at least 80 catches and 1,000 yards. He’s getting hot at the right time (fantasy playoffs) having scored at least one TD in each of his last four games. RB Michael Turner added a short TD run to go along with a modest 61 yards rushing. QB Matt Ryan was nearly perfect, completing 19 of 26 for 224 yards and three TDs with no INTs.

For Jacksonville, they were led (as expected) by workhorse RB Maurice Jones-Drew and his 112 yards rushing on just 17 carries (6.6 YPC). QB Blaine Gabbert had his moments (154 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT), but was harrassed much of the night by John Abraham and lost two fumbles. Jacksonville’s DST scored its first TD on a blocked punt.

Friendly reminder… If you haven’t entered the Week 15 FantasyFootball.com FREEROLL contest, what the heck are you waiting for… Sunday? Do yourself a favor and get your starting lineup loaded before it’s Sunday morning and you’re scrambling at the last minute to get it in. Don’t be stupid… be proactive. CLICK HERE to get immediate access to the “roster room” where you can browse the latest salaries to figure out which players present the most value. Pick the highest-scoring fantasy lineup for Week 15 and walk away with $90. Second place gets $60. $250 in total cash prizes awarded every week.

Are you kidding me? That’s all I can really say about the news that broke Thursday concerning Bears WR Sam Hurdand his apparent “drug problem”. The NFL says it’s “looking into the situation” and will make a decision based upon its findings. I’ll make it easy for you… his days in the NFL are over and his days as a free man aren’t far behind. Hurd reportedly dealt drugs to “at least” 10-12 current and former NFL players, so this could cause the league to take a softer approach with Hurd in order for him to comfortably “blow the whistle” on some of his NFL buddies. Regardless of what happens in the next few days, this is FAR from over and will likely drag on for a few weeks. BTW, it’s also been reported that Hurd actually spoke at an elementary school earlier this week… telling kids to “say no to drugs”. What a class citizen!!

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Best of the Rest…

Don’t forget about Friday’s one-hour edition of TWO FEET IN BOUNDS… the Internet’s most popular Fantasy Football Radio Podcast. Award-winning broadcaster and President ofFantasyFootball.comCraig Davis is joined by Senior Editor Mike Woellert as they take phone calls, answer emails, and get you ready for Week 15 of the NFL season. CLICK HERE to go to their Podcast page to make sure you don’t miss a single episode. These guys are GOOD… I’m surprised the big networks haven’t picked them up yet.

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Dallas Cowboys DC Rob Ryan told reporters Thursday that he’ll get the team’s defense fixed. I love the confidence, but I don’t like the what he has to work with, especially in the secondary. You can’t fix a defense when you don’t have the personnel.

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Speaking of the Cowboys, apparently DT Jay Ratliffwould rather fight with smaller reporters not wearing pads than a NY Giants offensive lineman. I don’t care what type of questions the reporter (Calvin Watkins) was asking, Ratliff is a professional who makes plenty of money. If you don’t want to answer a question, don’t answer it… but to threaten physical violence?? Just another reason the Cowboys are, once again, failing in December.